...Switzerland with Canada #2.
Why does the United States think they are the greatest country on earth? What do they do that declares themselves great?
I think one of the biggest reasons Americans think the US is the greatest country on Earth is because they are easily the
least well-travelled people in the industrialised world.
According to this
article in Forbes, 40% of Americans surveyed have never left the US. Additionally, 11% have never even travelled outside of their state!
Most Canadians I know have visited at least four or five countries; personally, I've visited 10.
On a visit to London when I was 22, an American couple approached me in the street to ask me if I knew where Americans liked to hang out in the city -- I don't think such a place exists, but evidently, they had no interest in meeting or interacting with locals, only their own kind.
I've seen this sort of behaviour numerous times from Americans when travelling abroad. Personally, Canadians are the last people I am interested in meeting or hanging out with when I am in another country.
A friend of mine spent a year in Geneva studying in a programme that was nearly entirely made up of Americans, Canadians, British and Australians. The Canadians, Aussies and Brits all hung out together, whereas the Americans would only hang out with other Americans.
Additionally, American media and the American school system is virtually entirely USA-centric. I even remember some online US magazine publishing a "10 cities in the world everyone must visit" list about 10 years ago, and 7 of the 10 cities mentioned were in the US, with Paris, Rome and Tokyo thrown in to make look like there were actually cities worthwhile worth visiting outside of America. Needless to say, it was the subject of many online slings and arrows.
Here in Canada, we also grew up with a variety of Canadian, British, French-Canadian and American programming on TV, and our news and educational systems are not 98% focused on what only happens in Canada.
So, when you never leave your country and your media and educational system gives you little to no view of the outside world, and you're made to believe that
only your country is relevant, you're bound to believe it.